S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider Kabuto Hyper Form Gallery

"Hyper Clock Up."

In anticipation of the release of today's subject, last year we took a look way back at the original S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Kabuto Hyper Form. A figure that came out in a much earlier era of figuarts development. and featured many of the defects and pitfalls of the Kabuto line specifically. However, as they have done over the last several years, Bandai has finally rectified the mistakes of Kabuto's final form with S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider Kabuto Hyper Form! This figuart walks the path of heaven, read below to find out why!

Packaging
The familiar Shinkocchou Seihou slip cover box makes another appearance! Nothing can be said about it this time that hasn't been said before. It's gotten a bit stale over time but it's still a pleasing type of box to see.

Main Figure
If you haven't checked out any of my previous Kamen Rider Kabuto galleries over the years, please, feel free to peruse them now! Especially the Shinkocchou Seihou ones as they give you the best idea of what to expect here:

SHF Kabuto Hyper Form (Original)
Seihou Kabuto
SHF Hercus, Ketaros, & Caucasus
SHF The Bee
SHF Kabuto Extender
SHF Dark Kabuto (Original)
Seihou Dark Kabuto
SHF Gatack (Original)
Seihou Gatack
Seihou Kick Hopper
Seihou Punch Hopper

The Seihou Kabuto mold that began all of this over 4 years ago, has aged supremely well. The first Seihou figuart release, this body has been resued a number of times and just seems to get better with each successive release. At it's base, Kabuto Hyper Form is still that same tried and true mold with brand new armor and detailing.

The legs are essentially the same pair we've come to know over the last few Seihou releases. The difference here is the additional of "wing" armor to each of the ankles. In a perfect world these would be able to fold out and expose the full hidden wing for Hyper Clock Up. This figure opts to make those swap out parts, as detailed in the accessories section below. Other changes to the legs are merely cosmetic, being paint apps. I've always found it really interesting that Hyper Form has asymmetrical feet, the right one being red. I just really dig that.

Kabuto's waist is largely unchanged. The original belt and Kabuto Zecter are still present. Though now we have the addition of the Hyper Zecter on the left hip. It can be unplugged for any other figuart to hold onto, it's lever is also hinged to move down for activating Hyper Cast Off. The arms come out similarly to the legs with just paint additions and new "wing fins" on the arms. We do however get some stellar new shoulder pads that still angle perfectly up and over the torso when needed. The red cover flips up for Hyper Clock Up, again detailed below with the accessories needed for the full conversion.

The largest change to this mold is the entirely new torso armor, front and back. For the chest, there's basically an immobile version of regular Kabuto's. The basic shape is there at least underneath everything else. On top of this are two silver and red curved strips that come down from the collar. These parts "split" open for Hyper Clock Up. They're held on be a pair of small pegs on either side of the chest. For Clock Up you just remove these and reattach the new parts. The exposed chest details underneath are just exquisite. The back side of the figure features a new carapace type of armor, that basically looks like two hard stunted wings. These are all balljoints so keeping them properly aligned can sometimes be difficult. Mine had a little paint splotch on there straight out of the box but it's nothing huge. The replacement parts for Hyper Clock Up are basically identical, but include attach points for the included wings of light.

Finally that brings us to Kabuto's drop dead gorgeous helmet. I have always loved the base Kabuto rider form, but Hyper Form is still one of my favorite final forms ever. The head is a large reason why. Taking the initial design cues of the standard helmet, this one just feels like such a perfect natural progression beyond that. The Seihou finally fixes the completely goofed up proportions of the original Hyper release and nails the compound eye color. I just could not be happier with how this turned out. This figure is the centerpiece of my Kabuto collection now.

Accessories
I would say by any decent measure, that Kabuto Hyper Form comes with more accessories than any other Seihou release, rivaling even Hibiki.

3 - Zecters (Sasword, The Bee, & Drake). Each of these Zecters is expertly detailed when compared to those that came with the original Hyper Form release. They don't really have any functionality on their own aside from a couple of moving parts for various combinations, but they are extremely nice recreations that can interact with the Perfect Zecter sword.

1 - Final Sword Perfect Zecter. The primary weapon of this form, the Perfect Zecter is an appropriately big and powerful looking weapon for Kabuto. On it's own, the Perfect Zecter is pretty cool even if it doesn't do a lot. It's real features come into when combined with the other 3 Zecters. Each plugs on at a specific point on the sword. To attach the Drake Zecter there's a small gold piece near the hilt that needs to be removed, there's some detailing on the Drake Zecter itself that replaces that detail.

The completed Perfect Zecter Sword Mode requires you to attach the 3 Zecters as well as flip out the Cross Guard on either side of the hilt. For Gun Mode, flip The Bee Zecter's tail forward,push the blade of the sword down so the hilt is angled at the trigger, then flip Sasword Zecter's tail back for the trigger guard. I realize that in either combo this thing is huge and kind of unwieldy, but it's always been one of my favorite final form weapons so I kind of have blinders on. Honestly that's me with Kabuto in general, I just really liked the show.

1 - Set of Hyper Clock Up Parts. This set of parts requires you to do a little disassembly of you Kabuto Hyper, but the payoff is well worth it. These parts give Kabuto winged ankles & wrists, a split open chest armor, as well as new carapace armor components for his back. The parts that were already on his back were on ball joints so they're easy to remove. The other parts peg in a bit more snugly, so just be careful. To complete Hyper Clock Up you also need to flip up the red armor on his shoulder pads revealing the vents beneath. Hyper Clock Up is an incredibly satisfying thing to see given the premium treatment. The original release pales in comparison to what this new one can do. The new back armor also allows you to use the final accessories.

2 - "Wings of Light". These gorgeous accessories are by far the biggest improvement this figure makes over the original. On the old Hyper, the wings were made of cthin clear plastic with a little rainbow staining to them. The cuts for the design were terribly cheap and the wings just weren't impressive at all. This time around the winds are made of hard detailed plastic that shimmers in the right light, the rainbow application is just a tad too subtle for my liking but I just can't argue with the final look when they're attached. This is the Kabuto Hyper Form I've wanted for over a decade.

Perfect accessories for a fantastic figure!

Final Thoughts
I got around to this review a little later than I would have liked, but I'm still so thrilled to own this figure. Kabuto is still one of my favorite Rider shows, honestly in my top 5. That's owed in no small part to the excellent designs of the show. It's a shame that it took so many years after Kabuto aired for these designs to finally be recreated so well at 1/12 scale. But these have been worth the wait. Shinkocchou Seihou Kabuto Hyper Form is an absolute joy to handle and blows the previous figure out of the water. As more and more Kabuto riders make their way to the line I eagerly await The Bee, Sasword, and the God Speed Love trio. But more than anything, now that we have Hyper Kabuto, I desperately need Hyper Gatack. With any luck, maybe one day it can happen too.

Part 2
- Kabuto Extender
- Hyper Clock Up
- Perfect Zecter (Sword & Gun)

Part 3
- Wings of Light

What about the hands? Does it use the same annoying peg system, or do we finally have a release with more standard hands?

The peg system was jettisoned years ago. Only Kabuto & Dark Kabuto (as it's a direct repaint/repack) use it. None of the other Seihou Kabuto figuarts use it. Just check the links I provided to those other galleries in the first post.

Gattack uses it too. I think they changed to the regular balljoint system starting with Kickhopper.



Great gallery, Den-O! Hopefully we can get a full Kabuto lineup in the Shinkocchou Seihou line since we're almost there. A renewal for TheBee is at the top of my SHF wishlist (along with a certain you-know-who ).

You know you're right. I was so frustrated that Gatack still had those dumb wrist pets I'd actually forgotten about it. I have always hated that hand system. And Im really really glad it's done.

This figure looks awesome. I also hope they continue doing Kabuto figures, TheBee would be sick.

looks really nice.

Great pics as usual, Den-O

That quote was such a Bill and Ted moment but done seriously. Had so much build up to it too that it seems ludicrous but actually makes sense.

Definitely one of the best moments in Kabuto, and the figure turned out fantastic!